Islams Reformers

The bigotry of the religion reformers or bigots of science who surfaced lately to blame all previous scholars, basic fundamental beliefs or practices

the amount of al-amwâl

the amount of al-amwâl az-zâhira and to distribute its zakât to the poor. These will be done by the ‘âmil, the official sent by the imâm of Muslims.” What men need and keep for use is a possession. A few seeds of wheat, a spoonful of soil, a draught of water are not possessions, since not all or some people keep them. If paper money would not be used with the value written on them, they would be of no value, for these pieces of paper, when prohibited to be used as currency, would no longer be in circulation, become useless and would not be kept for use. Ibn ’Âbidîn wrote on “Sarf” in his Radd al-muhtâr: “If flûs (copper coin) is legal tender, it will be money worth the value written on it. If the value written on it is cancelled, it becomes worthless.” So is the paper money. He wrote on the thirteenth page, “The promissory note has two meanings; the value written on it and the paper’s own value. The value written on it indicates the possession which is dain, that is, one’s own possession which one does not have with oneself. The paper’s own value is very little.” He wrote on the sixteenth page that the values written on the notes or checks of salary that will be received from the State indicate one’s possessions that are dain. So are the values on paper money. The zakât of one’s full possessions, that is, his property which he is permitted and able to save or use, should be given. If they are not his full possessions, their zakât need not be given. If the property of zakât is in his hands, it is called ’ain. If someone else keeps it, it is called dain. In trade, property is ’ain or dain under different conditions. Mabî’, goods that have been bought, become one’s possesions after contract but it is not permissible to use them before delivery. For this reason, these goods are not one’s full possessions before delivery. They cannot be included in the calculation of zakât before delivery. Before the saman (exchange, payment) of sold property is paid, it can be given to anybody if it is ’ain in the agreement, that is, if it is sold for cash. If the saman is dain in the agreement, thait is, if it is sold on credit, it can be given only to the debtor (buyer). For this reason, the saman also will be included in the calculation of zakât before it has been received. Whether ’ain or dain, one year after one’s full possessions of alamwal al-bâtina reach the amount of nisâb (the border of richness), it is fard to set aside one-fortieth of it and dispense it as zakât. It is written in the book Ad-durr al-mukhtâr that its zakât is dispensed in five manners, as follows: – 196 –

1) If some dain property is in a poor person’s hands and if all or a part of it is donated to that poor person, the zakât of the property that has been donated will have been paid as dain, too. If dain property in a rich person’s hands is donated to him, its zakât has to be paid to the poor as ’ain in addition by the donor. 2) The zakât of property which is ’ain should be given as ’ain. That is, in order to pay the zakât of a property which is present, the owner will separate one-fortieth of this property which is in his hands and give it to the poor. 3) The zakât of property which is dain cannot be paid as dain. It should be paid as ’ain, that is, the zakât of your property which someone else keeps must be paid out of your property which is present in your hands. If you have no property present, you ask for and take as much as the amount of the zakât of your property from the one who keeps your property and then give it to the poor. 4) It is not permissible to pay the zakât of property which is ’ain as dain, that is, it is not permissible to donate what you have lent to other poor people to a poor person as the zakât of your property which is present in your hands. But, it is permissible for you to command the poor person to get the debt which someone else owes you, as the zakât of your property which is in your hands, for it will become ’ain when the poor man takes the property or gold from the debtor, and thus the zakât of your property which is ’ain will have been paid as ’ain. The zakât of property which a poor person keeps as dain cannot be paid from that dain property, for the remainder will become ’ain when you take it from the poor person and the zakât of ’ain will have been paid as dain, which is not permissible. 5) If you donates a part of the dain which a poor person owes you to that poor person, the zakât of that part will have been paid. It will be necessary to pay the zakât of the remaining part separately as ’ain. You cannot count what you have donated as the zakât of the remaining part, for the remainder will become ’ain when you take it back and the zakât of ’ain will have been paid as dain, which is not permissible. It is written in Al-fiqhu ’ala ’l-madhâhibi ’l-arba’a, which covers the teachings of fiqh according to each of the four madhhabs separately, that whereas it is necessary in the three madhhabs to pay the zakât of paper money, its zakât is paid when the gold or silver equivalent of it is obtained in the Hanbalî madhhab. – 197 –